Facebook to invest in tech startups in India

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Friday 27 September 2019 4:50 pm IST

In a move that would give a tremendous boost to the startup ecosystem in India, social media major Facebook is gearing up to make substantial investments in technology startups, a top company official said on Friday.

We now have shown willingness to make direct investments in technology startups in India. We are willing to spend our time, and energy to tap the massive depth of engineering talent in the country, Facebook India Vice-President and Managing Director Ajit Mohan said.

He was addressing the opening session of the second edition of 'Huddle Kerala 2019', one of Asia's largest congregations on startup ecosystem, in Thiruvananthapuram.

The two-day event is being organised by the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) in association with Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

In his keynote address, Ajit Mohan said: A couple of months ago, we announced the first minority investment that Facebook has done anywhere in the world in a company called 'Meesho'.

What 'Meesho' does is it relies on the existing behaviour of communities in India and leverages on women entrepreneurs essentially pitching products to their friends and families."

The best thing about their model was it could bring 2,00,000 first-time female entrepreneurs online, he noted.